Filipino Gerardo dela Peña, 85, the nation's oldest prisoner walked out of the New Bilibid Prisons in the capital Manila on June 30 after spending 11 years in jail. (Photo courtesy: KAPATID)
Filipino civil society groups have called on the government to release some 90 elderly prisoners who have been languishing in jails after being convicted of alleged political charges.
The groups made the call after the nation’s eldest political prisoner, Gerardo dela Peña, 85, walked out of the New Bilibid Prisons in the capital Manila on June 30 thanks to executive clemency.
“He had been behind bars for more than 11 years for a trumped-up murder charge,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of rights group Karapatan.
The group has been monitoring the case of dela Peña and some 800 other political prisoners incarcerated across the country. Most of the political prisoners are either rights activists or ordinary citizens, it said.
“Gerardo’s release was the result of a campaign by human rights organizations here and abroad. In recent months, various groups steadily stepped up the pressure to secure his release,” Palabay told UCA News on July 1.
According to Palabay, the release of dela Peña was delayed due to “bureaucratic rigmarole.”
“The struggle continues for about 90 other elderly political prisoners like Gerardo who should likewise be released on just and humanitarian grounds,” she said.
Progressive group Bayan president Renato Reyes welcomed the release of dela Peña, saying it has been “long overdue.”
“It’s not a triumph of justice insomuch as it is proof of the gross injustice prevailing in the Philippines. That an elderly farmer would be convicted in that way is an injustice. [President] Marcos has made no pronouncement to free political prisoners. The political prisoners have increased under his regime,” Reyes told UCA News on July 1.
KAPATID, an organization supporting families and friends of political prisoners in the Philippines thanked the government for facilitating dela Peña’s release, the Commission on Human Rights and non-government organizations, which contributed to their cause.
“His release is a milestone for human rights campaigns, but also serves as a stark reminder of the obstacles that impede the release of political prisoners,” the group’s spokesperson Fides Lim said in a statement on July 1.
“Every additional minute behind bars is a gross injustice for an innocent man,” Lim added.
In the 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in the Philippines, the U.S. Department of State pointed out that the country’s constitution states that “no person shall be detained solely by reason of his political beliefs or aspirations.”
Yet, data from the Bureau of Corrections in 2023 said that 124 persons are serving sentences as “political prisoners” in the country, the US report noted.
“But there was no clarity as to how this term was defined and applied,” the US report said.
The NGO Task Force Detainees of the Philippines noted that in most cases, authorities mixed political prisoners with the general inmates, except in the New Bilibid Prison where most political prisoners were held in maximum security facilities, the report added.
In November 2023, former senator Leila De Lima, who was arrested in 2017, was freed on bail after nearly seven years of detention on charges of drug trafficking, which turned out to be baseless.
In May, the state-funded Commission on Human Rights (CHR) urged the government to “put primacy to efforts which ensure a humane correctional system in the country.”
“We take this opportunity to call for the release of persons deprived of liberty who have demonstrated good behavior and have met the legal standards for executive clemency as this would greatly help towards the government’s ongoing jail decongestion efforts,” the CHR said.
